The first Stars and Stripes reporter sent to cover the Vietnam War — Marine Gunnery Sgt. Steve Stibbens — died Saturday in Dallas at age 84.
Stibbens got his start in journalism at age 12 as editor of The Camp Woodland Springs Echo, a mimeographed summer camp newspaper in Texas, according to the United States Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association and Foundation. He later worked as a $10-a-night proofreader with the Grand Prairie Daily News in Texas before enlisting in the Marines in 1953.